ABSTRACT
Corporations and trade associations can decide to change their business strategies and technologies as a result of the findings they collaborate in producing. Collaboration can result in the production of scientific claims that are credible to collaborators themselves and that can serve as the basis for changing industry actors' economic interests. Trans fats are a type of dietary fat created by processing liquid oil, usually soybean oil, using a method called partial hydrogenation. Trans fats may have been predisposed to becoming a shared problem in part because so many corporations used or manufactured partially hydrogenated oils. Partial hydrogenation became widespread across the food industry in part because partially hydrogenated oils were very versatile and useful. The replacement of trans fats that Unilever claims to have initiated is arguably part of a broader trend in the food industry toward developing products that can be labeled and marketed as ostensibly healthier.
